The gastrointestinal nematodes of plains and Grevy's zebras: Phylogenetic relationships and host specificity.

ABSTRACT: Equids are chronically infected with parasitic strongyle nematodes. There is a rich literature on horse strongyles, but they are difficult to identify morphologically and genetic studies on strongyles infecting other equid species are few, hampering studies of host specificity. We sequenced expelled worms from two sympatric zebra species in central Kenya to expand the strongyle phylogeny and used DNA metabarcoding on faecal samples to genetically characterize zebra nemabiomes for the first time. We generated sequences for several species new to public genetic reference databases, all of which are typical strongyles in wild zebras (i.e., the three species of Cylindropharynx and Cyathostomum montgomeryi), and identified their closest relatives. We also discovered an apparent fu

SUBMITTER: Tombak KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8529100 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature